If you open up the battery compartment you will fined that the negative terminals are flaps of metal that "push" the batteries against the other terminal. After a long period of time, the batteries begin to gradually train that flap of metal down, giving it less spring.
To fix this problem, you want to take a small flat headed screwdriver and pry the terminals out. You want it to be slightly exaggerated for best results.
The other kind of terminal connection for the negative side is the spring. their problem is usually that they were cut too short. to correct this problem insert a small screw, that is shorter than the spring and has a wider head than the end of the spring. this gives you an extension to the spring.